The acme of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to Benue State this week was his directive on Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia to set up an all-inclusive peace committee for the resolution of all contentious issues that have rendered past efforts fruitless in ending the orgy of violence that has beleaguered the state.
This order, coming on the heels of horrifying killings that have turned Benue into a global cynosure of human barbarity, attracted both local and international outrage, following the massacre of no fewer than 200 persons in Yelwata last week, prompting calls for urgent measures to stem further bloodshed.
Following the killings of over 270 people by bandits within two months, the Chief of Army Staff, General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede, penultimate Wednesday temporarily relocated to Makurdi, the Benue State capital, to oversee security operations aimed at staving off further attacks on defenceless communities. Less than a week after General Oluyede’s relocation to the capital of ‘Food Basket of Nigeria’ to take charge of current military efforts to bring peace to the crisis-ridden state, suspected daredevil herdsmen attacked Yelwata, a farming community in Guma local government area, igniting a new wave of horrific attacks on defenceless civil population.
Crux Of The Matter
This is not the first time blood-thirsty killers are storming Benue communities to unleash ferocious attacks on a peace-loving community without any form of provocation. Prologue to the Yelwata commenced when Governor Alia accused some Abuja-based politicians from Benue of being behind the killings. These attacks, according to insiders, have continued unabated because those who have the power to end the bloodshed are invariably adversarial to one another in a bid to prove a point in service of egos.
It’s a public secret that there has been no love lost between the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, and the governor. The paramount ruler of the Tiv Nation, Prof James Ortese Ayatse, on Wednesday, during the town hall meeting with the President, gave credence to the governor’s position when he pointedly accused Benue indigenes of engaging in plots to unleash genocidal attacks on the state.
The major factor behind the divisions among the political elite is the widening gulf of interests in power acquisition. With the SGF and the governor almost virtually at war with each other, membership of the committee to bring peace may be turned into a battleground to decide who calls the shots. Those conversant with the bad blood between Akume and Alia are fully convinced that there can be no reconciliation between the duo.
Beyond The Military
When the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, recently declared that the Benue horror is beyond the military, one does not need to look afar to comprehend the dialectics of the bloody orgy. For a state that has been mourning for a long time, only unity can bring about the synergy within and without the security forces to defeat the enemy and end the devastation that has become the constant lot of besieged communities.
Like it is in some states of the North Central zone, the Benue killings are not about herder/farmer’s clash; it’s about a deliberate plot aimed at carrying out premeditated killings in order to dispossess the people of their ancestral lands. All these conspiracy theories advanced by Western powers, bordering on climate change as major drivers of these attacks, are often promoted by local megaphones of certain powers loyal to Western powers to veil the real motive of the murderers, who are adequately funded to rob indigenous people of their ancestral lands.
This is not the first time a presidential directive would be given, but treated with ignominious levity. Former President Muhammadu Buhari once ordered the then-nation’s police boss to relocate to Makurdi, which the former police IG declined. Even when Buhari later visited Makurdi and was told, there were no consequences of any sort by the then president against the erring police boss.
What Should Be Done
Tinubu’s order is likely to end in no action, as those who are behind the killings have not shown any sufficient cause to have a change of heart. As it is, those who have made peace impossible in the past are not willing to work for peace and stop the human barbecue ripping across Benue and various parts of the country. Insecurity is now becoming a tool for political manipulation deployed by the ruling elite to determine where the political pendulum would swing, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Just yesterday, as I was writing this article, the monsters of death made a repeat visit to Plateau State, culminating in the killing of 15 people. Another attack in Kebbi State on Thursday also claimed dozens of lives, with Governor Nasir Idris expressing readiness to empty the state purse in saving life and property currently being under threat by banditry and other violent crimes.
The resurgence of attacks by criminal gangs can only be stopped by deploying enough political will to defeat terror groups. President Tinubu may be unswerving in stopping the Benue bloodshed, but the question is: Are the politicians and community leaders on the same page with the president? As long as communities and politicians are only interested in the next elections, there will always be a restless army willing to join in the battle to decimate their own people. Engaging besieged communities to save life and property is not negotiable. The Benue killings and the recurring bloodshed on the Plateau and Kebbi State, among others, could as well turn out fiery testing grounds in assessing the suitability of Tinubu’s comeback in 2027. As Benue, Plateau and Kebbi bleed, besieged communities and security forces must stand up against politicians fanning the embers of bloodshed.
